"This damn mission—let whoever wants it go!"
"I'd rather face a military court than stay in this godforsaken place for another second!"
The edge of Tokyo Colony 1.
After surviving countless near-death experiences, they had finally escaped to this place. Jack, a soldier from the United States, waved his arms nervously toward the person behind him. "Rose, hurry!"
"We'll be able to escape this hell soon! Just a little further!"
Dressed in a beautiful American women's military uniform, Rose tightly gripped a firearm that had proven utterly useless against the monsters inside. She rushed toward the edge of the barrier, shouting, "Jack, wait for me!"
"This damn mission is basically sending us to our deaths!"
The walkie-talkie she carried still picked up the mournful cries of comrades on their deathbeds every passing moment. The fact that this military couple had managed to escape to the edge of the colony was already a monumental stroke of luck.
Only ten meters remained to reach the exit of the barrier. The two had just begun to show expressions of relief, but they suddenly froze!
PFFT!
A bloodstained dagger pierced Jack's throat from the side!
"Jack?!"
Warm blood splattered all over Rose's face. She stared at her boyfriend's contorted expression of agony, her pupils trembling violently.
"Oh dear, your face looks so distressed. It seems you had a special relationship with this guy."
The speaker had short, golden-blonde hair and wore a black, wide-sleeved haori bearing the crest of the Zenin clan. Naoya Zenin pulled the short blade from the soldier's throat, his face full of cruel amusement.
"With such a beautiful face, I wonder what will happen now that her boyfriend is dead?"
Naoya Zenin gently patted Rose's cheek with the flat of his bloodstained dagger, raising an eyebrow as he said, "How about... you come with me instead?"
"Devil... devil..." Rose murmured, her fear reaching its absolute peak as she felt the thick, sticky texture of Jack's blood on her skin. Her trembling legs slowly retreated, and then—
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"DIE! DIE! DIE!!!" Rose screamed, firing her sidearm wildly.
...
Naoya Zenin was the biological son of the former head of the family, Naobito Zenin. Like his father, he had awakened the inherited technique: Projection Sorcery.
Projection Sorcery: Divide one second into twenty-four equal parts. As long as the user acts according to a pre-designed sequence of movements, they can achieve speeds far exceeding those of others. However, the pre-designed actions cannot be changed midway, nor can they violate the laws of physics too excessively.
If the technique is activated and the user's palm touches a target, the person touched must also perform an action in 24-frame increments. If they fail to follow the rule, they are "frozen" in place for one second, looking like a flat paper doll. Their thoughts do not stop, but their actions are paused.
The rapidly fired bullets were easily dodged by Naoya as he moved through his 24 frames.
"Tsk, tsk."
Naoya approached the hysterical Rose with a grin, mockingly shouting words of encouragement as she kept firing.
"Go to hell! You devil, stay away from me!"
PFFT—SIZZLE!!!
Four consecutive cuts, barely visible to the naked eye, flashed out! The tendons and meridians in both of Rose's hands and legs were completely severed in an instant. With a dull thud, she collapsed into a growing pool of her own blood.
"You should thank me."
"At least I showed you mercy and spared your life, didn't I?" Naoya stood with one foot planted on Rose's head, a broad, arrogant smile on his face.
ZING!!!
A long metal spike, traveling even faster than a bullet, shot toward Naoya's head from a distance!
"Severing someone's limbs and then demanding they thank you..."
"Are all the men in the Zenin clan this sickly in the head?"
Nobara Kugisaki's words, filled with utter disgust, reached the battlefield. Glancing at the ordinary humans before them—one dead, one mutilated—Yuji Itadori, who was right behind Nobara, felt a surge of volcanic rage.
"Slaughtering ordinary people far weaker than you... what's the difference between you and a Curse?"
To avoid encountering Zenin Mirai, who shared the same colony, the six members of the Jujutsu High group had split into three teams. The Angel could only take one person with them, using their wings to fly past the Zenin guards and leave the barrier. Megumi Fushiguro had followed the Angel to Tokyo Colony 2 to find Hakari. Hiromi Higuruma and Takaba, who had not yet met Mirai, left via another exit.
Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki, however, were unfortunate enough to run into Naoya Zenin, who was guarding this specific sector.
"Students from Jujutsu High?"
Naoya raised an eyebrow at the two of them, his eyes full of mockery. "Going back now would allow you to live a little longer. This road is blocked."
...
"Kugisaki!"
With a sharp shout, Yuji saw Nobara nod as he charged forward! If they had encountered a regular guard, they would have chosen to avoid the conflict and find another exit. But Yuji could not accept this. He could not accept Naoya torturing and killing humans right in front of him.
With a surge of Cursed Energy, Yuji angrily swung a heavy fist at Naoya's smug face!
"I remember now! You're the vessel that's imprisoning Sukuna!"
Easily dodging Yuji's sudden lunge, a hint of mockery flashed in Naoya's narrow eyes. "I thought some great sage had come to lecture me. Isn't this Itadori? The guy who massacred tens of thousands of people in Shibuya?"
Upon hearing this, Yuji froze for a split second, his heart sinking. Naoya's malice-laden short sword slashed instantly toward Yuji's neck! Mirai's orders hadn't mentioned anything about holding back against this specific brat.
"Straw Doll Technique!"
"Itadori, wake up!"
A long nail, imbued with Cursed Energy, shot toward Naoya at lightning speed! As Naoya was forced to dodge the projectile, Yuji snapped out of it and ducked sharply to avoid the descending blade.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three long nails shot into the ground where Naoya had stood, creating a deep crater.
"That was my sin, and I will not deny it!" Yuji stood up and looked at Naoya, his eyes brimming with murderous intent. "For the rest of my life, I will continually exorcise Curses as atonement..."
"And you... a human being worse than any Curse... you should die!"
Licking the blood off his dagger with a long tongue, Naoya said disdainfully, "You're just a piece of trash who only knows how to punch? You really think you're on my level?"
As the vessel for Sukuna, information about Yuji Itadori was no secret among the Big Three Families.
Azure Cursed Energy surged from Nobara's hammer, and another long nail shot out from afar once more!
BANG!
With one foot stepping out of the crater in the ground, Yuji, in conjunction with Nobara's cover fire, unleashed another punch with all his might!
"Ridiculous!"
With a low shout, Naoya's speed, enhanced by Projection Sorcery, approached the speed of sound.
BOOM!!!
A sudden, heavy punch landed squarely on Yuji's cheek! His body, gripped by the momentum and the sudden strike, slammed violently into the concrete wall of a nearby building.
"Just a newbie who just joined the Jujutsu world, yet he dares to dream of defeating me." Naoya shook the bloodstains off his fist, his eyes filled with malice as he looked at Nobara in the distance.
"You guys are so arrogant, it makes me want to laugh!"
Born into the pinnacle of the Jujutsu world, and the only son of the Zenin patriarch, Naoya's life from childhood had been one of constant desire and indulgence. But it wasn't until the rise of Zenin Mirai and the forced abdication of the "weak" elders that things changed.
After a decade of Mirai's bloody internal rule, Naoya had finally discovered how great and wise the current head of the family was. People who make mistakes deserve to die. Those who can't even complete their tasks shouldn't waste the Zenin family's resources. Those scumbags didn't deserve to live in a Zenin household!
And that "old devil" father of his, Naobito! Naoya had long been dissatisfied with his father's old-fashioned ways and was deliberately trying to align himself more closely with Mirai.
Naoya felt every task previously assigned to him was a slight—keeping him far away and denying him the opportunity to serve Mirai directly. He believed the elders were afraid he would take away their rights, even though they claimed they were thinking of his future.
Especially after the news broke that Mirai had defeated Satoru Gojo, Naoya's fanaticism had reached a fever pitch!
Players are not allowed to leave the barrier!
The orders issued by Mirai were like imperial edicts to Naoya. He would enforce them to the letter.
"Go to hell, woman!"
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